Calgary Police Service officers gathered en masse in the downtown on Nov. 5, for what the service was calling Operation Order, to crack down on crime and social disorder.

Dozens of officers from all districts across the city were briefed and sent on patrol in the East Village, Stephen Avenue, and Century Gardens to address the continued perception by Calgarians that the downtown is not a safe place to be.

Calgary Police Chief Katie McLellan said that a six-year high for violence against the unhoused, against security staff, social sector workers, and law enforcement would now come to an end.

“This is not just about statistics. It’s also about how people feel when they walk through our streets, ride transit or visit public spaces, everyone deserves to feel safe in their city, and this operation will save lives,” she said.

Chief McLellan said the massing of officers was not just a one day event for making arrests and deterring social disorder.

“Today just isn’t a one day blitz. We will continue to do this going forward after today, we will debrief, and we will assess, and we will reassess. This just isn’t one and done,” she said.

As of 4:30 p.m., Chief McLellan said that CPS had conducted 20 arrests, executed 180 outstanding warrants, and issued 77 summonses.

“We also laid 20 criminal court charges and seized several weapons and made over 66 referral referrals to social agencies,” she said.

Not just a one time blitz

Addressing the root causes of crime and disorder in the core wasn’t just about policing, although the operation on Wednesday would not shy away from doing just that said Chief McLellan.

“This is not a one agency solution. We need social services providers, city departments and community organizations to address the root cause of this disorder,” she said.

“We are leading with supportive accountability that means enforcing laws and bylaws firmly but compassionately. Arresting is connecting. Arrests will be made when necessary, but always with dignity and care. Vulnerable individuals will be connected to services, not just processed through the system.”

She said success for Operation Order would be engagement from the community with members of the Calgary Police service, productive conversations with people who live, work, and own businesses in the core, and then ensuring that vulnerable people are given access to supports and resources.

Chief McLellan’s press conference about Operation Order on the steps of the Central Library, flanked by the CPS Equine Unit and dozens of officers, was as much about making the case for law and order in the downtown as it was a political ask of the newly elected Calgary city council.

“As you can see, with additional resources like this, this is what you get when we’re able to bring additional members in from the different areas of the service to do what we need to do today. So that’s going to be one of the asks in the in the next budget ask, and as I have been saying, we need more police officers to be able to do things like this today on a more regular basis,” said Chief McLellan.

In terms of policing, Chief McLellan said that there wasn’t a desire to engage in more heavy-handed policing outside of having an increased presence.

“We don’t want to get where we are the arm of the law and we’re walking in there with batons and shields and all that kind of stuff. That’s not our style. We don’t want to get there. That’s why we need to nip this in the bud the way that we’re doing it now,” she said.

CPS said that Operation Order built on the success of Operation CERTainty, which saw funding provided by the Government of Alberta for 50 officers to be deployed to areas of higher rates of criminal activity and social disorder in the downtown and along the Calgary Transit LRT lines.

Systematic challenges remain despite sweep

One of the individuals caught up during the sweep was Grant Robinson, an unhoused individual who was given a ticket by a CPS officer for allegedly throwing a cigarette butt on the ground, and was fined under section 178 of Alberta’s Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act for disposal of waste on public land (although the ticket shown to LWC by Robinson referenced section 179 of the act, which is waste on highways and not disposal of waste on public land).

He said the ticket for $220 would further prevent him from getting ahead.

“$220 and I only get $1,688 a month,” said Robinson.

He said the net effect for other unhoused being given tickets during the sweep was that it would prevent them from getting identification, getting a job, or being able to file their taxes—the former and the latter being required to access both provincial and federal social services in Alberta.

He said the solution was housing not policing.

“What they have to do is start concentrating on building up the empty buildings around the city, because there’s so many empty buildings that they could be used for drug-addicted people, people that don’t do drugs waiting to get housed,” said Robinson.

“I don’t drink or I don’t do drugs, and I’m handicapped. So, it’s not really fair that I’ve waited two years [for housing].”

Robinson said that fairness also extended to the ticket he was given, as he said also allegedly observed officers breaking Calgary’s traffic bylaw by jaywalking in the East Village and equine unit horses defecating on library sidewalk.

“It’s just, it’s not fair what they’re doing to people,” he said.

Trying to build real relationships says CERT Sargent

That perception differed from that of Sgt. Kristian Thorpe with the Calgary Police Service’s Community Engagement Response Team (CERT), who said that the police work to build connections over time with people in the East Village.

“The nice thing with being in CERT is we’re constantly deployed to the same area. I don’t need to know your whole life story right now, but now I know you, and so the next time I’ll work on that, I’ll build that up. That’s the approach that I’m trying to take and get my team to take, is that we don’t have to solve anything in the now,” he said.

“Some folks don’t trust us for whatever reason, right? So, we have to get a starting point, and then we’ll start building on that over time. We have some really good success stories, but nothing is like, ‘oh, here’s a great success story I can tell you about what I just did now.’ They take weeks and months, and sometimes like close to a year.”

However interactions on Wednesday morning were largely slow in the East Village and elsewhere at the planned sweep locations.

Streets which would usually be busy with both unhoused individuals and pedestrians were quiet.

“It’s not even that cold, like it’s got a chill but there’s just, there’s nobody around,” he said.

Leading observers for the operation through the Superstore and the 5th and Third building in the East Village, Thorpe commented on how the lobby that would normally be full of people—unhoused included—was empty.

Even the regular morning cleanup of Dermot Baldwin Way, which Sgt. Thorpe said has happened daily since the pandemic saw record number of people living in tents next to the Calgary Drop-in Centre, was quiet.

He said the few people who were living in tents was emblematic of some of the problems that prevent individuals from getting help, as well as where people become located.

“We have encampments all over the city, and so what’s happening now is they’re starting to suck in, because it’s not as easy to live out in the suburbs. People eventually will go inside when it hits a certain temperature, they kind of hit their breaking point… so as we see that suck in, we’re starting to see that concentration spike up a little bit,” said Sgt. Thorpe.

Something as simple as a place to store possessions makes a difference

One of the issues that unhoused individuals face is that there simply is not enough space to store their possessions.

Thorpe said for the people living in tents and storing their items in several bags, simply having that property prevented them from receiving a shelter space.

“They don’t have the capacity to let this kind of property volume go into the shelter. So, because they have so much property, having stuff is a barrier to accessing shelter,” said Sgt. Thorpe.

One of the unheralded success stories of the work that has been done by some of the agencies to address downtown disorder was a pilot project by Alpha House to house individuals for up to 30 days in a building next to the Drop-in, but also provide them three storage lockers to hold their possessions, he said.

“They’ve got separate washrooms, showers, laundry, day, space. So that’s a really good initiative. It shouldn’t be a pilot. It should be a permanent thing, because obviously that issue is not going away,” Sgt. Thorpe said.

Other success stories that haven’t been talked about enough include the provinces’ Navigation and Support Centre that has been operating out of the Salvation Army on 9 Avenue SE.

“It’s very well utilized, regularly breaking 100 people a day now,” said Sgt. Thorpe.

Wanting downtown to be safe and prosperous for all

Mark Garner, Executive Director for the Calgary Downtown Association (CDA) said that they were happy to see the CPS initiative on Nov. 5.

“CDA has been advocating very strongly for collaboration and partnership, and we are actually happy to see CPS on the initiative today, because I think it speaks to the advocacy work that we’ve been doing about making downtown safe and inclusive for everybody,” he said.

“I’ve said in the past that collaboration is the way to do this. I don’t think the municipality owns the problem. I don’t think the province owns the problem. I don’t think the feds, I don’t think CPS, I think it’s a community issue, and that’s been our push for that [Downtown Safety Leadership Table] program and the 28 recommendations that we wound up getting funded.”

He said that the issues that have led to Operation Order were not unique to Calgary.

A sentiment that was echoed by Sgt. Thorpe, who said that there wasn’t a city in Canada that wasn’t seeing a social disorder problem.

Within the downtown, Garner said that the CDA and local businesses have been clear on wanting people who are in need of help getting help, but also dealing with chronic criminal offenders who don’t want the help of support services.

“Enforcement is one component, but I’m more interested in enforcement wraparound services and making sure that the work done today continues on to get people off the street and get them into the help that they need,” he said.

Garner said the next steps would be to work with CPS and other partners—of which there are more than 35—to examine the takeaways from Operation Order and suggest future collaborations.

“We’re an active partner in helping make downtown safe and inclusive for all, and help tweak that delivery of service. Based on data we collect, number of incidents, pedestrian volumes that we have on Stephen Avenue, we can help articulate that to the people that are accountable, and then work with them on the solutions,” said Garner.